After Beethoven, nothing was the same in the history of classical music. To this day he is considered one of the greatest composers of all time. He managed to give archetypal dimensions to his works. Synonymous with the avant-garde, always up-to-date. He managed to express musically timeless demands by abolishing stereotypes, daring, influencing, sealing, opening new paths, not only in the way they are written but also in the way music word compositions are heard.

On December 15, the State Orchestra of Athens presents the “Beethoven Alone” concert at the Athens Concert Hall, with three of the great composer’s most popular works.

The evening will open with Egmond’s Introduction written for Goethe’s play of the same name. The composer, on the occasion of the tragic story of the Count of Egmond, expresses in the most vivid way the heroic ideals of the struggle for freedom and independence.

Afterwards, the leading Greek virtuoso Giorgos-Emmanouil Lazaridis will perform the famous Fifth Concerto for piano and orchestra, also known to most as “Imperial”.

One of the most popular piano works that has always been a benchmark for pianists. The program will conclude with the Seventh Symphony.

Creation, which according to Richard Wagner, “Deifies the Dance”. On the podium, the acclaimed chief musician and composer Yoav Talmi.

The program at a glance

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)

Introduction “Egmond”, work 84

Concerto for piano and orchestra no. 5 in E flat major, opus 73

“imperial”

Agreement no. 7 in A major, opus 92

SOLOIST

Giorgos-Emmanouil Lazaridis, piano

MUSICAL DIRECTION

Joab Talmy

The program of the Athens Concert Hall includes the following:

The conductor’s comment

I am very happy to return to Athens to conduct the Athens State Orchestra again. And there is no better program than three great works by the immortal Beethoven. The Egmond Introduction, the “Imperial” Concerto and the wonderful 7th Symphony! All were written within three years: the Imperial in 1809 (when Beethoven was 49), the Egmond Introduction in 1810, and the 7th Symphony in 1811-12. At the core of all three works are Beethoven’s powerful musical confrontations with Napoleon, in the context of the European wars of liberation from the long Napoleonic rule. Therefore all three of these works carry the burden of drama, battle and struggle.

The History…

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827)

Egmond, Introduction, work 84

The Count of Egmond (1522-1568) was a distinguished military officer and commander of Flanders during a period when the Netherlands were under Spanish rule.

The Spanish king’s envoy to the Netherlands, the Duke of Alba, accused and arrested Egmond as a heretic, since he had resisted the establishment of the Inquisition in Flanders. On June 5, 1568 he was beheaded, while his death gave rise to an extensive rebellion against the Spanish authority. Egmond’s story inspired Goethe’s theater drama of the same name, which was completed in 1788. Shortly after the withdrawal of Napoleon’s army from Vienna (October 1809) the ever-humanist and liberal Beethoven, on the one hand admiring the great German poet and his work and on the other hand, having fresh memories of the French invasion of Vienna, he undertook to compose scene music for the production of Egmond at the Hoftheater in the Austrian capital, which was finally performed on June 15, 1810. Beethoven’s music consists of an orchestral introduction and nine pieces, of which the Introduction still holds a prominent place in the symphonic repertoire. He succeeds, in a few minutes, in summarizing the whole work and – above all – in expressing in the most vivid way the heroic ideals of the struggle for freedom and independence. A solid, slow introduction is followed by a main section in sonata form.

The relatively lengthy coda expresses the longed-for rebellion against the tyrants, following Egmond’s charged deathbed speech to his countrymen.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827)

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5 in E flat major, opus 73 “Imperial”

1. Allegro

2. Adagio un poco mosso –

3. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo

In 1809, Austria and France are facing each other for the fourth time in 18 years, and at the beginning of May, Napoleon’s army is already on the outskirts of Vienna, launching a fierce attack to capture it.

Beethoven in his letter of that period describes the difficult times for the Austrian capital: “What a turbulent, wild life around me! Nothing but drumming, cannons, soldiers, misery of every kind.”

Nevertheless, by the end of the year Beethoven manages to complete, among other works, the Fifth Piano Concerto, a Concerto that in terms of length, virtuosity and expressive range is clearly ahead of its time.

The epithet “imperial”, which often accompanies the Fifth Concerto, does not come from the composer. As to how this came to be, various opinions have been expressed, none of which have been confirmed.

The first movement is the longest concerto movement written up to that time. Beethoven does not follow the usual structural pattern of a long orchestral introduction.

The orchestra undertakes to present the basic themes, which are then expanded and developed by the piano, taking – beyond their inherent grandeur – and a virtuoso dimension.

The sultry atmosphere changes radically in the slow part. To the initial, lyrical chorus of the strings, which play in sordina, the piano responds with descending ethereal trills and a warm, sensual melody. Chorus is amenable to

course of two variations, one by the piano and one by the orchestra (subtly accompanied by the piano). As everything seems to lead the music most serenely to a final conclusion in B major, an unexpected B

followed by the hesitant “whispering” of chords on the piano. These chords in the third movement, which follows without interruption, are transformed into a rough theme, which presents at first – and now only whispers!

the soloist with the only accompaniment a held note of the horns. From there a brilliant rondo develops, its middle episode being worked out in successively different keys before the triumphant return to the main key of E flat major. In the coda, the piano converses with the drum gradually slowing down, before a sudden and stormy final passage.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827)

Symphony no. 7 in A major, work 92

1. Poco sostenuto – Vivace

2. Allegretto

3. Presto – Assai meno presto

4. Allegro con brio

The first drafts of the Seventh Symphony go back to the autumn of 1811 during the composer’s stay in Teplice, near Prague. Later in the year, Beethoven returned to Vienna and continued work on the new work, which was completed in May 1812.

The first part begins with an extended slow introduction, almost a part in itself. With a progressive lightening of the orchestral writing, the mainly fast part is introduced. The flute introduces the first theme, which along the way is also introduced by

other families of instruments, while the second theme arises from the same thematic material.

The second part in A minor is marked Allegretto, instead of a classically slow time signature, a choice original and significant in terms of its practical implementation. Under a disarmingly simple rhythmic scheme, the music acrobats

between a mournful march and a majestic chorus, building up and releasing at certain climaxes enormous amounts of emotional tension.

The third movement consists of a lively scherzo and a slower but majestic trio, set out twice. After one final appearance of the scherzo, Beethoven reintroduces the beginning of the trio but after only four measures brings an abrupt end to the original tonality. The dancing mood reaches its peak with the fourth and final movement in sonata form, full of energy and sparkle. Perhaps wanting to compensate for the long slow introduction of the first movement, Beethoven closes the Symphony with a correspondingly long coda, which functions as a second treatment of the thematic material and forms an ecstatic finale.

The Symphony is the Apotheosis of Dance: it is Dance in the highest sense, the highest act of human movement, incorporated into an ideal sound structure.” The dance dimension of the Seventh indeed belongs to a spiritual,

existential level, where the triumph of human existence, a metaphysical and universal affirmation of life is expressed and experienced through the constant accumulation of rhythmic energy.